Wondering

Wandering around and do nothing is obviously not a good thing to do, unless you are resting your body, mind and soul after a long hard day of work or training.

However, wondering (spelled with an ‘O’) about certain things may bring some positive effect, depending on how you react or act towards it.

For example, a year ago I used to wonder how could I cycle on a stretch of a flat road with speed of 35km/hr or more without vomiting or cramping.

I also used to wonder how could I run for more than 30 minutes or 1 hour without ending up in the hospital due to breathing shortage.

Well, one of the wonders that I’ve been thinking in the past few days, especially when reviewing my past two triathlon events I participated is, how could I swim faster? Or, to be more specific, I wonder whether I can swim 1.5km in less than 40 minutes. I also wonder whether I can swim more than 1.5km.

For a real case study scenario, I swam the 1.5km distance during PD tri in 40 minutes, and 43 minutes during Kenyir tri. Very slow, yes I know that.

And, have I done my best during those two events? I think so. In fact, I almost drowned during Kenyir triathlon because I tried to swim faster in the crowd of people (I was out of breath and panicked). But still, I was slow.

That wonder has kept me pushing myself slightly further. A bit at a time.

Yesterday, I arrived early at the swimming pool with the intention to answer what I’ve been wondering about. The target was pretty simple – to swim 1.5km and check my timing, and then swim another 500m to get a total swimming mileage of 2km.

My last geli-geli swim training was on last Thursday, and knowing yesterday’s going to be a long swim, I warmed up and stretched my arms and shoulders and started the swim with a very comfortable pace, i.e. not too fast, and not too slow either.

The first 1000m, I clocked 20 minutes. I was shocked!

Reaching 1500m, my stopwatch was showing 32 minutes. Double the excitement!!

Completing the 2000m swim in 45 minutes, TURKEY!!!

I was pretty glad with what I achieved yesterday. It was like getting three strikes in a row for a ten pin bowling game. However I should say that it was not an easy task to achieve. Plus, swimming alone (almost) in my lane in the clear swimming pool will never ever match the actual situation when swimming in triathlon events.

And my new wonder now is, “Can I do better than this?”